Newly available blood tests to screen for colorectal cancer sound far more appealing than a standard colonoscopy. Instead of clearing your bowels and undergoing an invasive procedure, the tests require only a simple blood draw.
Stanford Medicine Oct 28 2024 But are the tests effective?
Ladabaum also pointed out that, at a population level, the blood tests will be effective at reducing colorectal cancer deaths only if people who reliably take the test every three years subsequently agree to receive a follow-up colonoscopy if the blood test returns a positive result. This makes colonoscopy a unique cancer screening method because you also have the possibility of cancer prevention. Despite that, there are many people who are not getting screened at all, or who are not getting screened as often as they should." Data show that about 1 in 3 American adults in the recommended age range have never been screened for colorectal cancer, so clinicians are hoping that new methods could encourage them to undergo screening.
Comparing effectiveness Ladabaum and his collaborators collected previously published data on six commercially available or in-development blood- and stool-based screening tests as well as the gold-standard colonoscopy. Using this data, they modeled the relative rate of colorectal cancer and deaths among 100,000 average-risk people who used each screening approach.
Modeling patient choices When Ladabaum's group modeled the effect of patient choices on population-wide colorectal cancer rates, they found most people continuing to screen with colonoscopy or stool-based tests as the best-case scenario. Blood tests should be used only by people who would not otherwise be screened.
He also said blood tests could improve, and the current results would then not hold true for future generations of the tests.
Cancer Colonoscopy Blood Test Colorectal Colorectal Cancer DNA Gastroenterology Health Care Medicine OCT Research
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